2019/20 Spanish La Liga – Round 18

Eighteen rounds into the season and Barcelona has received a 2 point lead at the top of the league table.
The top four is looking ‘traditional’
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) is leading the goal-scoring with 13 goals, and joint top in Assists with Ever Banega(Sevilla), Luis Suarez(Barcelona), and Rodrigo(Valencia) – 6.
Real Madrid can boast of the best defense in the league, conceding 12 goals(fewest) and suffering just a defeat.(fewest).

Highlighted changes in the league standings after the round
Barcelona gets a 2 point lead at the top of the standings.
Atletico Madrid joins the ‘top 4’, replacing Getafe.
Real Sociedad move up in position to 5th.
Villarreal settle in the middle of the league standings from 13th.
The bottom five teams stay in their respective positions from the end of the last round.

La Liga
Eibar 3-0 Granada
Goal Scorers Eibar – Sergi Enrich 21′ Kike 36′ Takashi Inui 87′

Mallorca 0-2 Sevilla
Goal Scorers Sevilla – Diego Carlos 20′ Ever Banega63′(pen)

Barcelona 4-1 Alaves
Goal Scorers Barcelona – Antoine Griezmann 14′ Arturo Vidal 45′ Lionel Messi 69′ Luis Suarez 75′
Goal Scorers Alaves – Pere Pons 56′

Villarreal 1-0 Getafe
Goal Scorers Villarreal – Moi Gomez 52′

Real Valladolid 1-1 Valencia
Goal Scorers Real Valladolid – Sergi Guardiola 83′
Goal Scorers Valencia – Manuel Vallejo 90+4′

Leganes 2-0 Espanyol
Goal Scorers Leganes – Martin Braithwaite 11′ Youssef En-Nesyri 54′

Osasuna 3-4 Real Sociedad
Goal Scorers Osasuna – Aridane Hernández 45+1′ Ezequiel Avila 48′ 84′
Goal Scorers Real Sociedad – Mikel Oyarzabal 15′ Cristian Portu 18′ Martin Odegaard 28′ Alexander Isak 79′

Real Betis 1-2 Atlético Madrid
Goal Scorers Real Betis – Marc Bartra 90+3′
Goal Scorers Atletico Madrid – Angel Correa 58′ Alvaro Morata 84′

Levante 3-1 Celta Vigo
Goal Scorers Levante -Roger 60′ 70′ Borja Mayoral 90+1′
Goal Scorers Celta Vigo – Iago Aspas 12′

Real Madrid 0-0 Athletic Club

Eibar kicked off the round with a ‘3-0’ win against Granada.

Sevilla did the expected and picked up a ‘2-0’ win against a struggling Mallorca side that Is trying to hold on to their place in the top flight.

Lionel Messi scored his 50th goal of the year in Barcelona’ ‘4-1’ win against Alaves.
Messi’s goal was Barcelona’s third goal of the match, and it brought some calmness to Camp Nou after Alaves had cut Barcelona’s lead in half to make in ‘2-1’.

Getafe failed to get a victory that would have seen them get into the ‘top 4’ after suffering a ‘1-0’ defeat on the road against. Villarreal.

Manuel Vallejo’s goal in the final minute of the match allowed Valencia to steal a point against Real Valladolid.

Leganes opened a 3-point gap on Espanyol through a ‘2-0’ victory when the two bottom-tabled teams met.

Alexander Isak’s goal in the second-half for Real Sociedad became the most important goal for his side, despite having a 3-1 lead at the half.
It was a 7-goal thriller between Osasuna and Real Sociedad.

Atletico Madrid managed a 2-1 win in Sevilla after beating Real Betis.
A first defeat for Betis in 5 league matches, and a rare consecutive win for Atletico Madrid in the league.

Despite being first to get a goal, Celta Vigo couldn’t come out of Valencia with a wing against.
Three unanswered goals in the second-half gave Levante a ‘3-1’ victory.

It will feel like two points dropped for Real Madrid after they failed to capitalize on numerous opportunities to win at home against Athletic Club.
In the end, it ended all square in a goalless draw.